Those skilled in the computer graphics or electronic publishing art are familiar with the acronym WYSIWYG. It stands for "What You See Is What You Get", and refers to, for example, in a Computer Aided Design (CAD) System, the ability to render and edit a black and white video drawing on a display, made up of various shapes and sizes, accurately, so that the video display is identical to hardcopy drawings subsequently produced on a graphics printer in terms of geometric proportions, line widths, shading and texture. Similarly, an electronic publishing system permits an editor to merge text and graphics on a video display and prepare fonts, typeface and page layout identical to subsequent laser writer output. This invention extends the WYSIWYG concept to color imagery through video presentation, user interaction, and display control methods so that accurate density, color balance and contrast predictions of subsequent color hardcopy output, can be made by the user, solely from the video display image rendition. It is understood by those skilled in the art that the video display viewing environment must be reasonably controlled to permit the user's visual system to adapt appropriately. For example, ambient lighting with a color temperature significantly different from the white point of the display, should be avoided. Because of the sensitivity and integrating capabilities of the human visual system to total scene information, the video display system that attempts to combine images and image manipulation options on a single video display, must be carefully laid out to minimize disruption of the user's visual system as pertains to the perception of density, color balance and contrast.